YOU ARE FIRED!!!

"I am sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language. This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers." And thus Rudyard Kipling, who had already written one of the best short stories in the history of literature, "The Man Who Would Be King", was fired as a reporter by the San Francisco Examiner.

Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, making him the first English language writer to receive the prize, and to date, he remains its youngest recipient.

He will always be my number one short story writer, novelist, poet, and journalist.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - MOTHER

"The hand that rocks
the cradle is the hand that rules the world!"

W. S. Ross

HIGH TIDE, LOSE WEIGHT

Each time the tide rises, every one of us loses a fraction of an ounce in weight; but the weight is regained as the tide falls. We are affected by these tidal waves, just as the ocean is, because of the water and salt content of our bodies. The land and the air are affected as well by the tides. Every time the water rises in a ten-foot tide, the continents rise about six inches and the atmosphere bulges many miles.

MODEL OUR LIVES IN HIM

Who do you most admire? People with power, influence, fame or wealth? Who is most influential in your life? And who do you most want to be like? We naturally look up to other people we want to imitate or emulate. If we truly want to live as God's sons and daughters, then it greatly helps us to have models and examples of godly people who show us how to live in the power of God's love and holiness. His grace frees us from the tyranny of fear and the pressure to please others rather than to please Him.

Allow God's grace to fill you with faith and courage to choose what is good and pleasing to Him and to reject whatever would keep you from embracing His love and will for your daily life?

LIFE IS LIKE A MELODY

In our daily life, we are always guided by directions. The direction we follow has a great effect in shaping our lives. We tend to reach a certain range in fulfilling our ambitions. Just like in music, the direction, progression, shape or contour and range of a melody greatly affect the mood of a composition. Melody may go ascending or be stationary. It may move step-wise or skip-wise.

We always thought about life purpose, how to live it fully and how to keep ourselves from accomplishing it. It's easy to have our life spin out of balance before we realize it for many different reasons--including temporarily to achieve a specific goal or to simply catch up at times. Like a music composition, we have to strictly follow rhythm, even tempo, dynamics, correct phrasing. In life, we need to maintain a sense of balance.

PAGES FROM THE PAST - A NUN STORY

The exasperation of the people knows no bounds!

For breaking her vow of chastity, a nun was forcibly kept in close confinement in a dark cell for a long number of years.

An anonymous notice apparently written by a female hand, reached the criminal court, immediately took serious investigations. The convent was one of the strictest female orders. People passed these sombre cloister walls without even suspecting the fearful tragedy being enacted within for twenty-one years.

In a dark infected hole adjoining the sewer sat, or rather covered on a heap of straw, an entirely naked totally neglected, half insane woman, who at the unaccustomed view of light, the outer world and human beings, folded her hands and pitifully implored, "I am hungry, have pity on me, give meat and I shall be obedient." The hole, for it could be hardly called a chamber, besides containing all kinds of dirt and filth, and a dish of rotten potatoes, was deficient in the slightest decent accommodation. There was nothing, no stove, no bed, no table, no chair and it was neither warmed by a fire nor the rays of the sun.

This den the inhuman sisters who called themselves women, spiritual wives, the brides of heaven, had selected as a habitation for one of their own sex and kept her therein in close confinement. For 21 years the sisters had daily passed this cell and not one of them thought of taking compassion on this poor outcast prisoner. Half human being, half animal, with a filthy body, knock-kneed legs, hollow cheeks, dirty head, unwashed for years, came a horrible human being forward such as Dante in his wildest imagination was unable to picture.

The Lady Superior said that the nun had been kept in close confinement by order of the physician because of her unusual mind. This physician had died and the one who replaced him had never seen the poor soul. Such treatment on the opinion of the doctor who treated the nun, is sufficient to drive a person insane.

FUR ELISE

As a child prodigy in Bonn, Ludwig van Beethoven's great ambition had been to travel to Vienna to meet and take lessons with the man he knew was the greatest living composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The opportunity came and he gained entry into Mozart's home and met his great idol. "Play something," he told Beethoven. He did, and when he has finished, Mozart walked into the adjoining room and told his friends, "stanzi, stanzi," pointing back into the music room, "watch out for that boy. One day he will give the world something to talk about."

Mozart was right, Beethoven became famous in his own right. One of the several piano pieces he composed, which is well-loved in the music world, is "Fur Elise." When Beethoven composed the piece around 1810, he described it as a little "bagatelle" and hastily scribbled a title on it. Now, however, music scholars believe that Beethoven's illegible title was really "Fur Therese," and the composition intended as a gift for Therese Malfatti, his physician's daughter.

LOOKING GLASS SELF?

Read a very interesting and informative article about self-actualization. It says, that to be self-actualized is to accept yourself for what you are and other people for what they are.

Self-actualized people are spontaneous, natural, and concerned with ethical and human values, disliking falseness and often having a mission, or a cause in life. A very important quality of self-actualization is autonomy, or independence. This strength is steaming from plenty of love and respect in the past, so that the person "is free to act relatively independently of these needs in the present." At the same time, the relationships self-actualizers develop may be more profound than those of other people. They identify strongly with humanity and work to stop unjust and dehumanizing conditions. For these people, life is so meaningful.

Among other qualities that stand out in a self-actualized individual are creativity, originality, and a positive attitude toward important tasks.

Are you a self-actualized person?

MY SISTER, RAQUEL

Today is my sister Raquel's birthday. She passed away 18 years ago, but her memories will remain forever in our hearts.. Her passing away was devastating for all of us. We had lost a very creative, lively, friendly, and most of all, the baby of our family. This entry is my tribute to her, what she meant to us, what we all shared, how much we loved her.

At 17, she was diagnosed with thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder, a serious illness, one in which there is no cure. It causes the body to make fewer healthy red blood cells and less hemoglobin than normal. It wasn't until she got sick when we realized what this blood disease was all about. We tried our best to normalize the situation. One of the hardest things was seeing her in the hospital with all those tubes and wires. Thinking about it now, we can still feel the same helpless feeling that there was nothing we could say or do to make it better.

A day before my birthday, I prayed to God so fervently, poured out all my sentiments, and asked Him for a gift. I asked Him, if it would be possible, as a birthday present to me, to either grant my sister, Raquel the grace of physical healing or complete healing.

And God answered my prayers... I am taking your sister to heaven.

STRANGE STORIES

Dig a swimming pool!

A thief who stole a businessman's laptop is to dug him a new swimming pool, a court has ruled. The 19-year old escaped the standard minimum six-month suspended jail sentence for the theft after his victim, a 41 year-old insurance agent, suggested the unusual punishment.


Penitent Man

A man who went to confession shocked his confessor by handing him a bag full of weapons. The priest said, "I couldn't believe my eyes." The bag contained two guns, two hand grenades and 18 bullets. "I cannot say what the man confessed to," the priest added, "I am just happy that he wanted to return to the Church."


Snoring Buglar

A burglar who broke into a shop was arrested after falling asleep on a display bed. Police were called in after employee heard snoring in the bed, part of a display in the shop.

THE ORANGE ROSE

Orange Rose

the symbol of
passion
excitement
blazing energy
embodiment of desire
and enthusiasm
expression of fervent romance

CONTACT COUNTS

As human beings we go through life responding to conflicting needs--the need for human contact and the need for independence. These needs seem to pull us in different directions at almost every stage of life. In mother's presence, a child will explore unknown surroundings without requiring her involvement. But if she should leave the room, exploring ceases and anxiety sets in. The same kind of thing is true of adults in relationships. Each partner needs the love, protection, and security provided by the other, but he or she also needs independence, self-fulfillment, and self-esteem.

i love you....

Our ability to adjust in later life depend a great deal upon the degree to which the need for contact and the need for independence are fulfilled during childhood. Relationship established during a lifetime either between friends or between lovers are influenced by the primary bond between parent and child. The child of a loving, supportive family usually learns to trust others, to share with them, and to enjoy their companionship. Such a child also develops a strong regard for self and approaches life with a strong sense of security.

TRIVIA - BELLS ARE RINGING!

In medieval times, church bells were often consecrated to ward off evil spirits. Because thunderstorms were attributed to the work of demons, the bells would be rung in an attempt to stop the storms. Lots of bell ringers were killed by lightning!

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - HYPOCRICY

"Few men speak humbly of humility,
chasely of chastity,
skeptically of skepticism."


Blaise Pascal

FROM FELON TO FAME!

O. Henry, the pseudonym

of William Sydney Porter (1862 - 1910),
was serving three years in prison for
embezzlement when he began
to write short stories.
Upon his release,
he gained national fame with
300 stories, most of which had a
surprise ending.